I’m wondering if anyone can help? I’m currently working on this project to turn this building back into a cinema. Does anyone have any photos of the original interior? When it was officially opened datewise? And what the first film shown, I’ve been asking locally and someone has come back and thinks it’s Snow White. Any help greatly appreciated

The organ was supplanted by a newer model from the Savoy Leicester but then the thing grew and grew and became a monster of 5 manuals and 30 odd ranks of pipes.It was assumed at the time that the first organ (Compton 2-6)was joined with the next organ (Compton 3c-6).But then the whole lot was moved to the Bygones Village at Fleggburgh.Since that closed everything has been in store.oddly the Empire Aldershot is now looking for a replacement organ.

The Compton organ in the Palace came from the Empire Cinema Aldershot and has since been removed, current whereabouts is unknown and sadly may possibly have been broken up for spares or scrapped. The organ had little ‘voice’ and although when in the Empire Aldershot the acoustic quality of the auditorium was high the sound of the organ was always somewhat disappointing and did not ‘fill the space’ with sound. This was despite the pipe chambers being high in the auditorium above the proscenium – according to Len Rawle (who used to play the Compton whilst he was stationed in Aldershot during WW2).The Compton was in poor condition when Len used to play it regularly and was rarely maintained. The organ had no illuminated surround and appeared to be a fairly basic Compton with a church style console. When installed in the Empire Aldershot it was not on a lift but at floor level below the screen. The film on the EAFA website is I think the only recording of this Compton

I used to attend bingo here in the early 70’s with my dad they used to have the organ played between bingo sessions. At one point I think they had a second organ installed. Some parts of the projection equipment were still in place but the picture heads and lamphouses had been removed(Kalee).